Bead Making Day: Toledo Museum of Art

365 Days Of My Life As A Studio Artist: Day 25

Day 24 Donations: $ .

Donations Running Total: $26.6633

Day 25 Growth Idea: Free Bead Making Class!!!!! The Toledo Museum of Art, Glass Pavilion is one of my favorite places. They have glass blowing demonstrations you can watch on a regular basis. For Mardi Gras, they are looking for 10,000 glass beads to make a glass bead curtain. At any rate, my donation money for now is going to be used to offer a free stained glass class where the students can try their hand at the torch. The cost of the gas and glass will be covered and the beads will be donated to the Glass Pavilion for their cause. I would love to see you. Although the class will be free, I will need your advanced registration. While at the free class, I will be offering a 25% discount on bead making kits ordered that night, as well as $20 off a purchase of private lessons!

My History: One of the classes I took while in Las Vegas was an installation class. Sounds boring, but there are as many installation options as there are stained glass windows. Knowing how to properly install, reinforce, sometimes thermopane glass is important in order to get the longest life out of each stained glass panel.

Today's Business: I am heading to Melvindale for a son's hockey tournament. While there, I am bringing a couple of lamps I repaired for one customer, and the window photographed here for a customer in the Dearborn area. I met these customers through my web site. when Herb called, he was excited to have a window created to compliment 3 other antique windows he and his wife purchased elsewhere. I will also be working on my web site. One game is at 10:45 the other at 7:55. So, there is a lot of time in between. I finally purchased a new laptop that I can actually use with the battery for times like this. Yeah!

Pat Deere

LINKS:
Bead Making Classes, Private Lesson Information
Toledo Museum of Art, The Bead Goes On Project

Day 8: Crushed Glass Preparation

365 Days Of My Life As A Studio Artist: Day 8

Day 7 Donations: $ .

Donations Running Total: $.368084

Day 8 Growth Idea: Weld a steel box for crushing glass.

I wasn't sure how many of these crushed glass pieces I would make so I had a flimsy box made of a Plexiglas hinged cover, plastic sides, a copper plate on the bottom, and a material curtain to hold in the glass shards as we hammer them with a sledge hammer to the proper size. If I am going to make these efficiently in the future, a better box for sledging needs to be made. Brandi has been king of struggling with our current system. Today's project has been cut out for me. Previous goals... the form letter has been added, and my bulletin board is full of "works in progress". It's much easier for me to visually see what needs to be done.

My History: One of the last classes I took prior to opening my studio was a Tiffany Style Lamp making Class in Toledo, OH. I purchased an old oil lamp that had been electrified. I designed the shade to match the base, purchased the hardware and glass sconce from a glass artist in Ann Arbor, and put it all together for a beautiful finished look. As I continued to work on glass projects, the thoughts about a studio became stronger. I was hooked. My future was becoming clearer.

Today's Business: Busy day planned. 7:30 am - I start with a meeting with a potential customer who is starting a new business. 9:00am - Meet with a church who is looking for information about possible repair work to their windows. Before the next meeting I will stop by the steel supplier to pick up necessary pieces to create a better box for my glass crushing needs. 11:30am - Meet with my marketing consultant. And, somewhere along the way I want to start a new crushed glass piece using a photo I took in Colorado as my inspiration.

Pat Deere

NOTE: My Free Class Thursday is filling up!

Where does the inspiration come from?

For me, it starts with the glass.

Todays customer came in excited to change the look of the front of their home. They had a design in mind that would coordinate with windows they purchased previously. Even with that, having the right selection to choose from makes all the difference in the world.

I just love the colors, the textures, and how the light changes the glass as the day goes from morning to noon to night.

Like a kid in a candy store... I just can't get enough.

Pat Deere

CLASSES: Thursday evening classes will be beginning. If you're interested, email me or give me a call. Click this link for class information... but keep in mind, I am very flexible with the class agenda. And if you are interested in volunteering to work on projects in my studio to hone your skills, you can learn for free (space permitting).

Facebook Friends & Free Classes

Vasos Em Mosaico: One of the wonderful things I am finding out about Facebook is the way I can get in contact with fellow artists across the borders. There is a link for a Facebook friend of mine that might interest you. There, you will find a lot of fellow mosaic artists with some very interesting work. Some of it is glass and some use materials other than glass. But they are all a source of great inspiration.

Free Class Saturday: It is raining in Michigan and it seems like a good day to take some time and work on a volunteer project I have had going on. If you are interested in coming to help on this stained glass window, give me a call or email me so I know to expect you. I believe we will start about 9am and work until at least 11am. This is a good opportunity for you to learn and for me to get some help finishing a project that needs to get done. Hope to see you!

Links: Vasos Em Mosaico http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1788915244#/profile.php?id=1788915244

Free Class Saturday

I am planning on being in the studio Saturday to work on a volunteer project that is long overdue. It is a window for Grace Bible Church. If you are interested in putting in some time, learning about stained glass or getting some free instruction, come by tomorrow morning to help out.

We will be cutting glass, foiling, possibly some torch work (bead making)... depends on who is here and how far we get.

Let me know if you think you want to come and I'll be sure to stick around for you. I will probably be in my studio around 9am and stay until we get tired of working. I'll check my email for interested people since I won't be around much this afternoon: info@PicturesInGlass.net .

Studio directions: 10650 Carson Hwy is 1 mile west of M52, and 2.5 miles south of US12 or 1.5 miles north of M50.

Pat Deere

Inspirational Students on a Sunny Michigan Saturday

What a fun day! Today was my Free Mosaic Class day and I had 3 students attend with various levels of experience. It never fails that students inspire me and they did today - whether they knew it or not.

I meant to snap a picture while they were here working and... we got talking about mosaics of all kinds, pottery, bead making, fusing, art shows... and on and on and the picture was forgotten.

We were working on Tara here. You can see her laying on the table behind my mosaic sample board for another project I applied for. You have seen Tara before and she is getting closer to being done, with the help of Kerry, Joann, and Phil today.

Phil is working on an idea that will require gluing musical wire (like guitar strings) to glass. Today we tried using KOA 300 and an ultraviolet light. It worked for a while and then broke loose. I am going to try again to see if we can get it to work well. If there are any suggestions from people who have had similar situations and you found a combination that works, let us know!

As soon as I am done here, I will be leaving for Toledo to check out the building that Art-O-Matic 419 will take place at in April. I will be one of the exhibiting artists and don't even really know what it involves. I know there will be artists of all kinds, including poets, musicians, etc. and thought it sounded like a fun mix. I'll let you know more as I get information.

Chicago is my destination on Tuesday. I will be visiting my supplier to pick up some large pieces of glass and always something real unusual that I will use for something some day. If you need anything, let me know before Monday evening and I will pick it up for you when I go.

That's it for today. Enjoy your Saturday. It's SUNNY here in Michigan today!

Pat

Misc. - Yesterday, Lead Free Solder, Mosaic Class...

What a day yesterday! I was glued to the tv. If only a fraction of the expectations of this new presidency can be accomplished, how exciting that will be.

My FREE mosaic class for this Saturday from 9am-10am will be followed by class times ranging from 2-4 hours for those interested in glass classes of any kind. For those coming for my FREE class, we will either be working on Tara, my mannequin that has already been partially completed with a Breast Cancer theme, or a new mannequin idea called, "First Ladies". I'm kind of excited about this so if you do come, please bring ideas with you. If you don't have any ideas, that's ok, I have plenty for both of us. And, mosaic glass is FREE also. I have a lot to get rid of. It is sorted by colors already. Take the whole box and it's FREE. Pick a piece here and there and it's only 50cents a pound. I really would like to get rid of it. This is also great for 4H groups, church groups, schools, etc. So... pass the word.

Solder - I have made a concerted effort to use only lead free solder. Green is the buzz word of today and I have been toying with this idea for a long time. For those of you who do stained glass... you know it is more difficult to work with, does not take well to patina, and does not polish up as easily as it's leaded competitor. That said, it can be done. Workng with lead free solder is better for you and our environment.

I have contacted the manufacturer of the solder I use most often, Canfield, and asked them for their input. On their web site I read that you may have to try different fluxes, play with temperature, etc. When I hear back from them I will let you know what I hear. If you have suggestions along the lead free solder line, let us know. For some technical information from their site, go to: http://www.canfieldmetals.com/stained_glass.htm .

Enjoy the day! Pat